Just the Tip:
Many credit cards repay prepaid, nonrefundable costs when illness, severe weather, or another covered reason cancels or cuts short a trip you paid for with the card, and some cover meals and lodging during a long delay. Check your card’s guide to benefits before you buy travel insurance, and book with a card that carries the coverage.
On Chase’s card pages, the no-annual-fee Chase Freedom Flex repays up to $1,500 per traveler and $6,000 per trip in nonrefundable fares. The Chase Sapphire Preferred, at $95 a year, repays up to $10,000 per traveler and $20,000 per trip, hotels and tours included.
The fine print differs as much as the limits. The Sapphire Preferred also pays up to $500 per traveler for meals and lodging when a covered delay runs past 12 hours or forces an overnight stay, while the Freedom Flex has no delay coverage. Both cover cancellations for reasons such as an illness or injury when a doctor advises canceling, severe weather, and new military orders. Neither covers a change of plans, a work obligation, or a condition you got medical care or advice for in the 60 days before booking.
Chase’s coverage also pays only what other insurance or the travel company doesn’t. A policy you buy for the same risks would pay before the card does, and an airline’s refund for a canceled flight comes first too.
Before you buy a policy, find the guide to benefits for each card you might book with, in your online account or by calling the number on the back of the card. Read its sections on trip cancellation and interruption, trip delay, and baggage delay, plus rental car coverage if you’ll rent a car.
Then charge the whole trip to the card that covers it, deposit included, or, where the guide allows, book it with that card’s points. Chase repays only what you charged to the card or paid with its rewards, and American Express covers only round trips paid entirely with an eligible card.
Buy a travel insurance policy only for what the card leaves out, such as a cancellation for a reason off its list or medical care abroad, which trip cancellation coverage doesn’t pay for.
If none of your cards carries trip cancellation coverage, compare the best travel rewards credit cards before you book your next trip.
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